Michael Janda. Burn your portfolio

It takes more than just a design school education and a killer portfolio to succeed in a creative career. Burn Your Portfolio teaches the real-world practices, professional do’s and don’ts, and unwritten rules of business that most designers, photographers, web designers, copy writers, programmers, and architects only learn after putting in years of experience on the job. In the book I use humorous insights to dispense nugget after nugget of hard-won advice collected over the last decade from the personal successes and failures I have faced running my own agency. In this surprisingly funny, but incredibly practical guide, my advice on teamwork and collaboration, relationship building, managing clients, bidding work, production processes, and more will resonate with creative professionals of all stripes.

Weighing in at 400 pages of invaluable information intermingled with 200 awesome illustrations, Burn Your Portfolio, has something for everyone working as a creative professional. From junior designers to creative directors, freelancers to agency owners, this book is filled with nuggets of wisdom learned in the trenches of the real creative world. The book is broken out into five sections that will help you answer questions like: How do I keep from getting hosed by my clients who don’t want to pay? How do I set up a production process? What will make me stand out and catch my boss’ attention? How can I make money as a freelance designer? How much should I charge? And with chapters like Polishing Turds, How to Eat an Elephant, Don’t Work In A Vacuum, and This Is Not Verbatim-ville, you are sure to be entertained along the way.

Michael Janda, owner of the Utah-based design firm Riser, uses humor to dispense nugget after nugget of hard-won advice collected over the last decade from the personal successes and failures he has faced running his own agency. In this surprisingly funny, but incredibly practical advice guide, Janda’s advice on teamwork and collaboration, relationship building, managing clients, bidding work, production processes, and more will resonate with creative professionals of all stripes.

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Scattered around the internet numerous interviews with graphic designers can be found. This site brings together some of those conversations from various online sources. Together they form a kaleidoscopic portrait of contempory graphic design through the thoughts of its leading practitioners.